EFCC Begs Senate For Extra N300m For Legal Fees

ACTING CHAIRMAN OF EFCC, MR. IBRAHIM LAMORDE

ABUJA, January 24, (THEWILL) - The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Tuesday appealed to the Senate to include an additional N300 million in the 2012 budget for it to enable it prosecute the renewed drive against graft in Nigeria.

Particularly, the graft police said the sum will be set aside to pay for legal services during the year 2012.

Acting Chairman of the commission, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde made the request before the Senate Committee on Drugs, Narcotics, Financial Crimes and Anti corruption, during his budget defence before the committee.

He complained that the budget did not provide an allocation for legal fees.

Lamorde therefore appealed to the committee to assist the commission by making provision for additional funds in the 2012 budget proposal.

According to him, the multiple appeals arising from previous cases, which are being handled by external lawyers, had increased tremendously.

He said, "The activities of the commission is expected to increase in 2012 and that the cases filed in courts will increase significantly also.

“The amount of money required for transport and duty tour allowances for our legal team and operation officers will increase.

"In addition, it is envisaged that legal fees payable to the solicitors handling our current and expected cases will also increase. Multiple appeals arising from previous cases which are being handled by external lawyers are also on the increase.

“These appeal cases attract separate legal fees. The commission will require additional N300 million to cater for legal fees in 2012. The present budget estimates has zero provisions for legal fees," stated.

The commission said it requested for N21 billion for its operations for the 2012 fiscal year, but its request was slashed by the Budget Office to N10.98 billion.

According to Lamorde, while it requested for N10 billion for construction of Head Office, only a paltry sum of N3 billion was provided in the budget, just as the N30 million was provided for the purchase of operational vehicles, whereas N175million was requested.

The shortfall for capital budget for 2011 which was N2 billion, was completely removed, as well as a N700 million insurance premium.

The Senate committee also looked at the budget of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, with complaints that the budget was also slashed by the Budget Office.

According to submissions made before the committee, while ICPC submitted a budget of N10.14billion, their proposal was cut to N4.2 billion.